TDP general secretary N. Lokesh said on Wednesday that people might have realised by now that the administration was off-track under the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP government, and it was time for the voters to defeat the ruling party in the forthcoming local body elections.
Addressing a public meeting at Narsipatnam in the district, Mr. Lokesh drew an analogy between Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rule and that of Tughlaq.
Before the elections, Mr. Reddy had rained kisses on people at his public meetings. But after becoming Chief Minister, people were made to taste lathi blows, he said. Section 144 was clamped at Mr. Reddy’s residence to prevent people from staging protests. “For the first time in the history of the State prohibitory orders have been clamped outside a Chief Minister’s residence,” he said.
Later, the police objected to the TDP’s plan to take out a motorcycle rally as the participants were not wearing helmets.
Issuing a veiled threat to the police, TDP leader and former Minister Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi will go for early elections. We (TDP) will regain power in three years and then you (police) will have to come to us.”
Mr. Lokesh walked for some distance and then took an open-top vehicle. Many of the participants walked along with their scooters and motorcycles.
